The Gamer's Quarter

[player 2]

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/clips/new-gears-of-war-ad-210089.php

This is an advertisement for GoW. It is supposed to appeal to your "sensitive side".

And I fucking hate it.

Gears of War does nothing but glorify male machismo. I feel that there is nothing wrong with that - I did just finish Yakuza and GodHand. What I have a problem with is that GoW doesn't really understand how immature it is. The soldier is twice the size of a normal human being, couple that with the loaded imagery of reflections of ravaged buildings and destroyed beauty, and you have something of a bomb. Don't forget that they have the GoW logo in the reflection, too. That gear/skull thing is pretty cute.

The first few comments along with Crecente's admission of an emotional response just kill me. Gears of War is not about death, or sadness, or regret. I mean, they're playing the goddamn Donnie Darko soundtrack for a game that is about as heavy metal as a bunch of nerds programming their XBox 360s can make a video game. God, I want to puke.
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[Dracko]

It reminds me of the horrendous gameplay videos or AMVs teenagers end up doing.

Good Lord, I can't believe people are taking this game so seriously. It's ridiculously clichéd, in style and substance. And the dialogue from gameplay trailers, Jesus.

I honestly wonder though how all of a sudden Cliffy B became a big name game developer.

No, really, that was laughable.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[player 2]

[Dracko]

And so the forum kiddies followed the trail.

Dearie me.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[SuperWes]

[SuperWes]

[helicopterp]

I have been under the impression that it is completely aware of how over-the-top it is. I have also been under the impression that Cliffy B's notoriety exists only because he goes by that shitty name.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[player 2]

To be honest, I haven't heard much or seen much about Gears of War, but what I do know completely contradicts anything that has to do with... anything...

What I mean is that you have these big hulking characters sporting Gears and Skulls and metal and whatever. They run around carrying huge guns and chainsaws and they kill aliens. They take cover, pop out, shoot more aliens. The "co-op" mode is touted to be amazing, and so are the headshots. This makes the game look like a $60 digital male fantasy game.

Maybe Cliffy B still wants to talk about issues like death and regret. Maybe he wants to make war seem like hell. But I don't know if that will be successful considering some of the other elements in his game. It would be interesting if Cliffy tried getting that story across - that story of sadness. It would be especially interesting in terms of that gamer mindset because, to us gamers, nothing about Gears of War is out of the ordinary.

I'd still call bullshit on the emotional aspect of the game. If it was really an honest effort to add something more than guns and glory, there's no way he'd pick Mad World to showcase it.
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Dracko]

[Shapermc]

[Harveyjames]

[Nana Komatsu]

It's a pretty song.

[Dracko]

Yeah, but the original is better.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Lestrade]

If it is a real ad, then I don't have a problem with it. Yes, it's a game about large men with big guns shooting large aliens. But it very well may have something more to it; we (as in the public we) have been shown very little of the actual game.

I think an ad that doesn't try to go the "In a world... [sounds of explosions]... only you can save humankind!" route should be applauded, not reviled. Even in the final game is very much of the Bruckheimer variety, I appreciate this different approach. It's a quiet spot, and that alone is worth some kudos. It has heart; let's toss aside the jaded cynicism and hope the game does too.

[player 2]

I think you guys are overlooking the fact that there is just so much goddamn loaded imagery.
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[FortNinety]

Just like you can't really judge a movie by a trailer these days, the same is becoming true with video games (funny enough, as they become more cinematic in general).

I really can't comment on the commercial/trailer since I haven't seen it, and that's because I actually can't (GameVideos, along with every other ZD site, does not play well with Macs), but the way its being described... I really don't understand why people are so upset.

I recall similar complaints with God of War, which was also called way too "macho". Umm... video games have always appealed to that side of people. Always. Its always been about killing and stopping, and its always been rather immature about it as well. Now that things are a bit more vivid, its all of a sudden a bad thing? Conversely, I don't really recall a time when video games have appealed to people's sensitive sides, at least to a great degree. Granted, there isolated examples, but overall, video games have always been built on violence, which has always had a strong share of masculinity, and like a mindless jock,

But anyway, the point of advertising is to get people talking, so... mission accomplished.

[dhex]

[Nana Komatsu]

[Shapermc]

dhex, I just honestly think the commercial is real. Normally when the 360 logo pops up at the end there is a little inverted *bloop*-ish sound. This commercial didn't have it and it just reeks of the stuff that AMV kids make.

Also, yeah, heavy juxtposition. I meant to say that in my first post
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Lestrade]

[Mister Toups]

Isn't that an REM song?
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where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

[Dracko]

No, it's a popularised cover (Blame Donnie Darko) by Gary Jules of a Tears for Fears song.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[SuperWes]

[Shapermc]

[dhex]

speaking of rem, if grandia two had a trailer, it could use "losing my religion"
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[OtakupunkX]

SO IN GEARS OF WAR YOUR GUN HAS A CHAINSAW ON IT! IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME AND EDGY AND COOL, I READ ABOUT IT IN THE NEW EGM...

says this kid in my Digital Art 2 class.

[dhex]

a gun with a chainsaw on it sounds pretty cool. that would have saved doom 3, even.
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[simplicio]

[FortNinety]

Man dhex, you REALLY hate Grandia 2 don't you.

[dhex]

like your people hate dogs, dude. those tasty, hateful dogs.

it was a 10 dollar unemployed impulse buy, iirc. like dark cloud 2 and dw7, it was part of the long and painful road of discovering that japan just ain't for me.
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[Mister Toups]

[JasonMoses]

Dark Cloud 2 is probably the only game I've ever played in which I didn't even bother getting past the introduction.

[Shapermc]

[Cycle]

What?

What about space trading?

Everyone loves space trading!

[Shapermc]

Uhh, the first PS3 commercial in the US.


It's just fucking weird.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Harveyjames]

I guess Chris Cunningham and David Lynch were busy that week.

I think this type of thing has lost the shock impact it once had (like 10 years ago). It was feeling pretty creaky when the PS2 came out, in fact. Now it seems like self-parody.

Wii has pretty good TV adverts! Nintendo during the Gamecube era was like the little brother who you knew could be a smashing young man if only he would buck his ideas up. Under Iwata it's like that brother has finally grown up and started wearing nice shirts and being charming to people.

Expounding on this metaphor, Sony is like that cool friend you had in high school who is still living the same life he was living then and it's getting slightly embarrassing.

Microsoft is a naked hairy giant who looks through your top window and does toilet.

[Shapermc]

[Harveyjames]

Oh yeah, all the Japanese Gamecube promotional stuff, from the box art to the website to the TV ads to the size of the boxes, were sort of neat.

Nintendo of America and Europe didn't seem to get it, though. Their promotional stuff was basically just a neutered version of what Sony and Microsoft were doing, perhaps geared more towards younger children. I always thought they should have celebrated the Gamecube's otherness, instead (which is pretty much what the British DS ads are doing now.)

I like David Lynch's PS2 ad for what it is.

[Dracko]

I'll give that much to Sony: They have a creative marketing department. I remember even the first PlayStation adverts being unreal and interesting.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[SuperWes]

[Harveyjames]

That one's quite good because it does sum up the experience of playing a crappy Codemasters racing game on the PS2.

It's not particularly original though- it's just like Johnathan Glazer's video for Rabbit In Your Headlights by UNKLE, as someone pointed out in that Youtube comments box.

[Shapermc]

Is that the deer that wrecks the car? Yeah, that's not david lynch. He only did one. And I never said I liked it as a PS2 commercial.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[FortNinety]

[Dracko]

The more I look into it, the more interested in Gears of War I get. It's mainly the gameplay, which seems idyllic for a third person view game (Then again, I thought The Punisher translated its feature character amazingly well to the game mechanics, so take from that what you will), including the camera effects. Still not convinced about the story. Some of the dialogue snippets in trailers are painful and the Locusts still look like Spawn rejects, but at least they come off as humanoid and there seems to be an effort made.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dark steve]

[Scratchmonkey]

Yeah, this one is the only one that I've seen elsewhere as done by Lynch.

Although the above one with the guy in the hallway is the only one that's listed here.

[B coma]

[Harveyjames]